ENGLISH LITERATURE

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

This course is part of the A-level Programme but also part of the Humanities Foundation Programme. It has been designed for those students who have had minimal exposure to any kind of literature especially English literature and its main aims are to :
(a) expose students to the major contemporary Drama and Novel and to Shakespearean Drama and Poetry,
(b) introduce the methods and terminology of literary analysis and criticism , and
(c) teach students how to make informed, substantiated and original judgements based on their reading material, and to develop presentation skills.

REQUIRED BOOKS:

Depending on your choice of texts and poems you will need different books so consult your teacher before buying books

COURSE OUTLINE:

Prescribed poems from Poems of the Decade: An Anthology of the Forward Books of Poetry 2002–2011, ISBN 978-0571325405
and one post-2000 novel chosen from the following list:
– The Kite Runner – Khaled Hosseini
– The Life of Pi – Yann Martel
– The White Tiger – Aravind Adiga
– Brooklyn – Colm Toibin
– Purple Hibiscus – Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

one pre-1900 drama chosen from the following list:
– Doctor Faustus – Christopher Marlowe
– The Rover – Aphra Behn
– She Stoops to Conquer – Oliver Goldsmith
– Othello – William Shakespeare
– Twelfth Night – William Shakespeare
plus one post-1900 drama chosen from the following list:
– Death of a Salesman – Arthur Miller
– A Raisin in the Sun – Lorraine Hansberry
– A Streetcar Named Desire – Tennessee Williams
– Top Girls – Caryl Churchill
– Waiting for Godot – Samuel Beckett

prose -two novels from one of the following four themes
prose themes and texts:

– Growing Up

What Maisie Knew – Henry James
Great Expectations – Charles Dickens
The Color Purple – Alice Walker

– Colonisation and After

A Passage to India – E. M. Forster
Heart of Darkness – Joseph Conrad
The Lonely Londoners – Samuel Selvon

– Science and Society

Never Let Me Go – Kazuo Ishiguro
The Handmaid’s Tale – Margaret Atwood
Frankenstein – Mary Shelley

– Women and Society

Mrs Dalloway – Virginia Woolf
Wuthering Heights – Emily Brontë
Beloved – Toni Morrison

Students will study:
one Shakespeare play chosen from the following list:

Hamlet
King Lear
Measure for Measure
The Taming of the Shrew

plu one specified collection of pre-1900 poems from one literary movement, from a choice of three. The prescribed literary movements are:

Metaphysical Poets: prescribed poems from Metaphysical Poetry, Editor Colin Burrow, (Penguin, 2006) ISBN 9780140424447
The Victorians: prescribed poems from The Oxford Book of Victorian Verse, Editor Christopher Ricks, (OUP, 2008) ISBN 9780199556311
The Romantics: prescribed poems from English Romantic Verse, Editor David Wright, (Penguin Classics, 1973) ISBN 9780140421026